Build Math Confidence February 2022 Volume 153
Upcoming Math Education Events
Friday March 18 LIMACON in person Long Island NY
The Math of Winning Wordle
Although Wordle is a word puzzle, Math people are also enthralled by this daily challenge! You have 6 guesses to find a 5 letter word and Wordle gives hints/feedback -- a green square indicates the letter is correct and is in the right position whereas yellow means the letter is in the word but is in the wrong spot.
The Art of Problem Solving published The Math of Winning Wordle: From Letter Distribution to First-Word Strategies. From this analysis, over 15% of eligible words begin with "S" which may help solvers strategize in choosing their first word.
Black History Month: Women Who Count
Women Who Count is a collection of profiles of past and present female African-American
mathematicians along with Math activities including magic squares, transformations and coordinate geometry. Women Who Count is geared to grades 3-8 but can be enjoyable and empowering for any age including adults!!
it is important that children see themselves represented in STEM no matter their race, gender or ethnicity. Author Shelly Jones, originally a computer engineer, is a professor at Central Connecticut State University and currently the president of the Benjamin Banneker Association. In addition, she also helps create policy and statements in her role as the NCSM Position Papers Editor.
Professor Jones was inspired by Sarah McCorley's book Super Cool Scientists and the movie Hidden Figures to write this book with 29 women in 4 categories: The Firsts, The Pioneers, The Un-Hidden Figures and The Contemporary Firsts.
One Billion Numeracy
onebillion won a 2021 WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) Award for their  "complete edtech solution (tablet and app) for all children to achieve numeracy and literacy skills in their own language." It is for use by Ministries of Education, teachers, researchers and NGOs. but "Ultimately though...for the child."
One Tab is a solution that "delivers reading, writing and numeracy in one simple package". It allows for assessment of a student's skills as "key stakeholders can rapidly determine children’s literacy and numeracy levels, appropriate action can be taken to make a change that will improve children’s learning outcomes as soon as possible."
"The goal of onetest is to bring positive change for the child and their learning outcomes, by identifying which interventions are working, whether that’s on a national level or within a single classroom."
So far, it has reached 200,000 students since 2013 and the intent is to broaden to reach as many children as possible. The current languages are English, Swahili, Chichewa and French with Portuguese and Hausa to be added soon.
Brain Puzzler
You are painting a square wall that is 12 feet by 12 feet. When you are halfway done, the unpainted part of the wall is still a square that measures 12 feet from top to bottom by 12 feet from side to side. How is this possible?
Answer to January's Brain Puzzler: 10 days, click here for the solution

Thanks, Robin the Math Lady Schwartz